One of US Navy's newest warships, costing a whopping USD 360 million, has broke down less than a month after it was commissioned, prompting calls for a thorough probe into the "alarming" incident.
The Littoral Combat Ship USS Milwaukee broke down last Thursday, days after the ship's crew discovered "fine metallic debris in the port combining gear filter system," the Navy said in a news release.
The crew later discovered similar debris in the ship's oil filter.
The Navy described the breakdown as a "loss of propulsion." The ship had to be towed more than 40 nautical miles (74 km) to port after it broke down.
The ship, commissioned on November 21, is now undergoing a full inspection in Little Creek, Virginia.
The breakdown happened as the ship was on its way to its home port of San Diego after it was commissioned in Milwaukee.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain called the ship's "complete loss of propulsion ... Deeply alarming, particularly given this ship was commissioned just 20 days ago."
"US Navy ships are built with redundant systems to enable continued operation in the event of an engineering casualty, which makes this incident very concerning" McCain, an Arizona Republican, CNN quoted him as saying in a statement.
McCain said that he expected the Navy to "conduct a thorough investigation into the root causes of this failure, hold individuals accountable as appropriate, and keep the Senate Armed Services Committee informed."
Milwaukee was the sixth littoral combat ship to be delivered to the US Navy and the third of the Freedom variant to join the fleet.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship, with three types of mission packages including surface warfare, mine countermeasures, and anti-submarine warfare.
